Whether or not it was the fish that David had dropped, they both ended up catching the same ling!

Not the first time this duo have shared a fish – I guess it saves their arms! Richard E in the stern, had not caught ling before and had a quiet start, but then found the technique.

Although Gregg, one of our guest rods caught the fish of the day (over 22lb) Richard caught one approaching 20lb – a great first to this hard fighting species! Ben (one of our new members) showed us all how to do it by catching the most ling, but Richard and David were close on his heels!

The tide had been relatively slack all day, and so when the ling bites slowed, Lyle took us to another couple of wrecks to try our luck.

Our thanks to Phil for his hard-work behind the scenes and to Lyle for a most enjoyable day’s fishing and for filleting our fish so professionally.

As it was a close run thing, I will let Phil calculate our placings in the Club competition.

Kindest regards,

David

With the holiday season starting, just 8 members fished, but we were joined by 3 like-minded anglers who made for a very amicable crew.

We were all on the boat ready for the 8 am lifting of the town bridge, with lovely settled conditions and the hint of a warm spring day to follow. We enjoyed a steady run out to our first mark and it was good to see a few swallows making a return to England!

When we started our first drift before 10am, the sea was calm and the sun was starting to warm us! David hooked the first ling on this drift and this was followed swiftly by a couple of others.

On the second drift, David hooked another ling that quickly spat the bait out, a quick retrieve to confirm that he still had bait and then drop to the wreck.

Immediately another ling took his bait and this one was safely landed – it was all looking too easy! But then the rest of the boat started to catch – not frenetic, but steady, whilst David kept on hooking fish and then losing them! Ken and Peter caught one apiece over the first hour or so, then also had a blank period. David dropped another fish, and almost immediately Ken and Peter were “in”.